SpaceX’s Dragon set for grapple Sunday morning US Time

Glitches overcome, Dragon will be greeted by the Station's robotic arm.

At a bit after 10am Eastern time this morning, Elon Musk's commercial launch company SpaceX will attempt to send its Dragon capsule on a second resupply mission to the International Space Station, following a successful test flight and one previous cargo mission. As of the last check, all systems are go. If all goes well, the mission will give SpaceX both a healthy paycheck from NASA and further validation of its Dragon hardware, which is being prepared for a human crew.

Any worries about the power supply limiting the range of Elon Musk's vehicle should be assuaged by the presence of two large solar panels on it.

UPDATE: The Dragon has successfully reached orbit after a countdown that went off without a hitch. Docking with the International Space Station is expected around 6am US Eastern tomorrow.

UPDATE 2: According to a tweet from Elon Musk, the Dragon's software is currently blocking the initialization of the thrusters used to control the craft in orbit. Operators are attempting to override the initialization block.

UPDATE 3: We've received the following statement from SpaceX: "One thruster pod is running. Two are preferred to take the next step which is to deploy the solar arrays. We are working to bring up the other two in order to plan the next series of burns to get to station."

UPDATE 4: At least one of the other thrusters is now online, and the solar arrays have been deployed.

UPDATE 5: Tomorrow's rendezvous has been put on hold, since two thrusters are required to get to the right orbit for a rendezvous with the Station.

UPDATE 6: They now have two thruster pods powered up, which should be sufficient to get the Dragon capsule to the Station. Three are needed to maneuver in the area of the station, so some further work is needed before a successful docking can occur. Fortunately, NASA is saying there is a lot of flexibility in the berthing schedule there.

UPDATE 7: And, in the middle of the press conference, the remaining thruster pods came up to pressure; Elon Musk is saying that they will enable the thrusters shortly.

UPDATE 8: Musk is saying that the Dragon can operate for about a month in orbit while they try to sort out the thrusters. And, if all else fails, it can splash down with the cargo, avoiding a complete loss.

UPDATE 9: All four thrusters are now working. They're starting to raise Dragon's orbit, and will continue testing the hardware while figuring out a new plan to rendezvous with the Station.

UPDATE 10: Grappling of the Dragon capsule, the first step towards docking, will take place at 6:30 am Sunday morning US Eastern time.

I suppose it's the perspective along with a long zoom range, but it looks like they're about to launch that rocket from the parking lot of that building in the background. That might be pretty cool actually!

BTW, the quality of the live shots from the rocket itself are awesome!

Well... it's not really a private launch. SpaceX has contracts with NASA for resupply of the ISS along with delivery of satellites to orbit. One of the projects I'm working on (DSCOVR) is scheduled to be launched on a Falcon 9 next year (wow, is it really that soon...). I think it also makes sense for NASA to lease/rent the launch pads to other organizations as a they already have the resources, no point in them sitting empty.

Well... it's not really a private launch. SpaceX has contracts with NASA for resupply of the ISS along with delivery of satellites to orbit. One of the projects I'm working on (DSCOVR) is scheduled to be launched on a Falcon 9 next year (wow, is it really that soon...). I think it also makes sense for NASA to lease/rent the launch pads to other organizations as a they already have the resources, no point in them sitting empty.

It's a start. Think it as the equivalent of an airmail contract after WWI.

Dragon has a problem. Solar arrays did not deploy. Sounds like an avionics issue.

Prior to launch, SpaceX said that Dragon could make one berthing attempt at the ISS on battery power even if the solar arrays do not deploy. But if there's an underlying issue, that may not be possible.

BTW, the quality of the live shots from the rocket itself are awesome!

Well... it's not really a private launch. SpaceX has contracts with NASA for resupply of the ISS along with delivery of satellites to orbit. One of the projects I'm working on (DSCOVR) is scheduled to be launched on a Falcon 9 next year (wow, is it really that soon...). I think it also makes sense for NASA to lease/rent the launch pads to other organizations as a they already have the resources, no point in them sitting empty.

Understood and it does make sense to use Nasa's existing launch pads until the others are ready to go. I thought the private launch pads in other states were getting close to being ready and were cheaper to use because of their more optimal locations.

Dragon has a problem. Solar arrays did not deploy. Sounds like an avionics issue.

Prior to launch, SpaceX said that Dragon could make one berthing attempt at the ISS on battery power even if the solar arrays do not deploy. But if there's an underlying issue, that may not be possible.

Ah crap. Man, I hope they can nail that berthing attempt, if it can even be made. Bugger.

Dragon has a problem. Solar arrays did not deploy. Sounds like an avionics issue.

Prior to launch, SpaceX said that Dragon could make one berthing attempt at the ISS on battery power even if the solar arrays do not deploy. But if there's an underlying issue, that may not be possible.

An Elon Musk vehicle running out of battery power? I've never heard of anything like that recently.

Keep on truckin' SpaceX and all that follow. This is the kind of thing that makes the NASA decision to start divesting from that part of the business understandable. Not without plenty of risks, but a worthy gamble.

The falcon 9 is a flawed design. There are to many engines and chances for a problem. Given you can continue with only 8 but there are 9 engines. So 9 chances for a problem.

most big trucks/tractor-trailers/lorrys must have a flawed design, too. i mean, they have EIGHTEEN wheels!!! some of them have even more than that if they're carrying something particularly large and/or heavy. that's EIGHTEEN possible points of failure! given that they can drive with as few as 14, depending on which ones fail, but ZOMG that's 3 x 3 x 2 points of failure!! oh the humanity!! [rolleyes]

Well... it's not really a private launch. SpaceX has contracts with NASA for resupply of the ISS along with delivery of satellites to orbit. One of the projects I'm working on (DSCOVR) is scheduled to be launched on a Falcon 9 next year (wow, is it really that soon...). I think it also makes sense for NASA to lease/rent the launch pads to other organizations as a they already have the resources, no point in them sitting empty.

It certainly is a private launch. Having government agencies as customers does not make SpaceX a government agency. It doesn't even make them a "contractor" like UA, because the only thing they are providing are fixed-cost fee-for-service services. SpaceX is not building NASA rockets, SpaceX is building SpaceX rockets which NASA (among many others) are buying tickets to ride upon.

Not to suggest that NASA hasn't been an invaluable source of seed money, R&D, and expertise. But, I don't want it to get lost how significant a step this is.

Watched the launch this morning from the parking lot at work. It seemed like the rocket was MUCH faster than the shuttles I'm used to watching launch. Does anyone know the speeds of these things?

Shuttle jumped off the pad faster than F9 because its solid rocket boosters gave it a higher thrust to weight ratio at liftoff. But F9 has a higher velocity at stage separation, over 3km/s compared to about 2km/s for Shuttle at SRB sep.

Watched the launch this morning from the parking lot at work. It seemed like the rocket was MUCH faster than the shuttles I'm used to watching launch. Does anyone know the speeds of these things?

Shuttle jumped off the pad faster than F9 because its solid rocket boosters gave it a higher thrust to weight ratio at liftoff. But F9 has a higher velocity at stage separation, over 3km/s compared to about 2km/s for Shuttle at SRB sep.

also, since there are no people inside, the rocket doesn't have to be as gentle during acceleration. as long as the cargo can withstand the force of ascent, it can go as fast as they want it to.

also a matter of perspective. i don't know how far you are away from the cape, but at the large int'l airport near me, i get to see everything from little RJ145 (express-jets) up thru 777s come and go all the time. those huge jets seem to be barely able to stay in the air, while the little express jets and prop planes seem like little darts by comparison, even though i'm sure the jumbo jets are going faster just to stay up.

i'm gonna watch the iss pass overhead tonight - wonder how far behind it the dragon will be... we got to see it pass overhead the night before its first ever docking w/ iss. after that, our 3-year old daughter would yell out "i see dragon in the sky!!!" any time she saw a plane in the air at night.

also, since there are no people inside, the rocket doesn't have to be as gentle during acceleration. as long as the cargo can withstand the force of ascent, it can go as fast as they want it to.

The Falcon 9 does have higher acceleration than the Shuttle, but not so much as to be a problem for passengers (which it is intended to carry eventually, anyway). It shuts two first stage engines down on the way up to keep acceleration below 5 gravities, compared to about 3 gravities for the Shuttle.

Well... it's not really a private launch. SpaceX has contracts with NASA for resupply of the ISS along with delivery of satellites to orbit. One of the projects I'm working on (DSCOVR) is scheduled to be launched on a Falcon 9 next year (wow, is it really that soon...). I think it also makes sense for NASA to lease/rent the launch pads to other organizations as a they already have the resources, no point in them sitting empty.

It certainly is a private launch. Having government agencies as customers does not make SpaceX a government agency. It doesn't even make them a "contractor" like UA, because the only thing they are providing are fixed-cost fee-for-service services. SpaceX is not building NASA rockets, SpaceX is building SpaceX rockets which NASA (among many others) are buying tickets to ride upon.

Not to suggest that NASA hasn't been an invaluable source of seed money, R&D, and expertise. But, I don't want it to get lost how significant a step this is.

on top of that, nasa already owns the launch facility, along with all its staff and support equipment, so it could negotiate a better price with SpaceX. if nasa also had to pay for SpaceX's staff and facilities....

i'm sure there were/are some spacex staff at both mission control and launch control, but probably less than there would be had it launched from a non-nasa facility. besides - spacex doesn't HAVE its own launch facilities yet anyway, does it?